Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions

Feb 27 The following bids, mergers, acquisitions
and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Thursday:

** General Electric Co is preparing to sell its
energy unit that makes fuel dispensers in a deal that is
expected to fetch more than $500 million, people familiar with
the matter said on Thursday.

** A consortium involving two Maori tribes will bid against
private equity giant Carlyle Group Ltd for Transpacific
Industries Group Ltd's New Zealand waste management
business, a deal expected to fetch NZ$1 billion ($830 million),
a person involved in the bid told Reuters.

** Bayer AG said it would buy privately held
Dihon Pharmaceutical Group Co, a maker of traditional herbal
Chinese medicines, as the German drugmaker pushes to become the
world's largest non-prescription medicines group.

** Spain's Acciona SA is looking for a buyer of a
minority stake in its international renewable energy portfolio,
which has revenues of about 500 million euros ($683.35 million),
the company said on Thursday.

** Spain's government has started to sell some of its shares
in nationalised lender Bankia with an initial offer to
investors of shares amounting to a 7.5 percent stake, investment
bank UBS said in a statement on Thursday. Bankia shares closed
on Thursday at 1.58 euros per share, implying a valuation of
1.365 billion euros for the stake.

** European private equity fund Permira said on Thursday it
had agreed to buy investment manager Tilney from Deutsche Bank
AG as it looks to create a wealth manager with 9
billion pounds ($15 billion) of assets.

** Japan's Osaka Gas Co and Chubu Electric Power Co
said each plans to invest about $600 million for
individual stakes of 25 percent in a gas export facility at the
Freeport LNG gas project in Texas.

** Saudi Arabia's government plans to sell a 15 percent
stake in National Commercial Bank (NCB), the
country's largest lender by assets, in an initial public offer
that would be the kingdom's first bank IPO since 2008.

** Turkey is likely to start ordering F-35 fighter jets
built by Lockheed Martin Corp from 2015 onwards and it
will start with two orders initially, Turkey's undersecretary
for state-run defense industries Murad Bayar said on Thursday.

** Copper miner Kazakhmys plans to sell off
less-profitable mines to its biggest shareholder Vladimir Kim to
focus on lower-cost, open-pit mines and growth projects, sending
its shares up by more than 30 percent on Thursday.

** U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP
signed an agreement to take a 20 percent stake in Italian
fashion house Versace, in a deal worth 210 million euros ($287
million), a person close to the matter said.

** Chinese Internet company Baidu Inc is poised to
make more acquisitions this year to entice smartphone users to
tap into its services, a strategy that will put it on a
collision course with bigger rivals like Tencent Holdings Ltd
.

** Light Tower Rentals, which provides rental equipment and
services to the oil field industry, is exploring a sale that may
fetch around $700 million, according to people familiar with the
matter.

** State-run Korea Gas Corp said it had decided
not to sell its stake in Australia's $18.5 billion Gladstone LNG
project.

** Robert Friedland's High Power Exploration said it would
buy a stake in copper prospector Apollo Minerals,
marking a further inroad by the mining entrepreneur into
Australia's small-cap resources sector.

** HSBC said it is talks to sell its business in
Pakistan to Meezan Bank Limited, another possible sale
by Europe's biggest bank from countries where it is unprofitable
or lacks scale.

** Standard Life could move parts of its business
away from Scotland if Scots vote for independence, to protect
the company's competitive position.

** Yuanta Financial Holdings Co, the parent of
Taiwan's biggest brokerage, has won a bid for a stake of 27.06
percent in South Korea's Tongyang Securities Inc as
it expands its footprint overseas, a company official said.

** China's COFCO Corp is in advanced talks to buy
a stake in Dutch grain trader Nidera, people familiar with the
matter said on Thursday, in a move that would help the world's
most populous country secure food supplies.

** UDG Healthcare Plc said it acquired
KnowledgePoint360's healthcare communications business for $144
million in cash to expand in the United States and Europe.

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